Some rigging pointers

Some Rigging Pointers...

Step 141.
Here is a shot of the skeletal rig I used on Cooper. It's basically the Setup machine rig with some add ons from me. The add ons consist of fan bone systems to create smooth bending shoulders and hips, wrists that twist like a wrist should and elbow and knee fan bones that flex those joints correctly.

In addition I added a setup for the eyes witch is basically two bones for the eyes and a null for them to aim at.

I haven't added other bones for facial animation yet, but I'm working on it.

A shot from the front to show the Setup Machine's rig.

Though I don't usually plug other commercial tools, I'll say that the Setup machine is well worth the money. The time it saved me on just 2 characters paid for the software.

Its easy to use and allowed me to set Cooper up with my modifications in about 6 hours. Without my mods it would have taken about 3 or 4 hours.

If you want to check out a model without any of my mods just download my Hulk model and see how it works. Without the fan bone work, the joints will crease severely.

Even with smartskin you'll have mesh popping on certain ranges of motion. But with the appropriate Fan Bones and Smartskin, your joints should look great!

This image is just to show the eye rig. You might also notice how well the bones of the spin line up with the splines of the torso. This was, incredibly, pure luck on my part.

Step 142.
Now, to the meat of this discussion, or should I say the bone. Sorry, couldn't resist.

In the image on the right, notice the two small bones at the shoulder. These, for those of you unacquainted with them, are fan bones. Basically they are bones that create a smoother bend in a joint. They are children of the clavicle bone.

Fan bones work by rotating themselves like other bones. They don't rotate exactly like their targets, they rotate a specified percentage of their target's rotation, this creates the "fan".

So what. Well if you study a joint, you'll notice that the skin around the joint never moves 100 percent with the joint's movement. The skin stretches and bulges as the joint flexes. Smartskin can simulate this but Smartskin has some drawbacks that are to technical to explain in a short tutorial.

Suffice it to say that you need smartskin and fanbones to get a realistic joint flex.

Step 143.
So How do these particular fan bones work. The image to the right shows the point assignments

This setup without smartskin would look pretty bad, but with just a little tweaking on the mesh in a smartskin on the arm bone, the joint will look very realistic with a minimal effort.

Step 144.
These are the constraints, and their enforcement's, that should be applied in a pose. The exact percentages may change depending on your setup and the location of the fan bones.

As a general rule the closer a fan bone is to its target, the more you'll enforce the constraint.

This movie shows the kind of joint you can get with just a little setup on the front end.

Play the movie and check it out. You might notice a pop on one frame. Its actually a lighting issue associated with a five point patch. It doesn't render with a texture applied. Lucky me.

Step 145.
This mess of spaghetti is my attempt at showing the setup for the hips and knees.

The main things to notice are the fan bones in the hips and the fan bones in the knees.

Basically the hip fan bones are children of the spine (spine1) and the knee fan bones are children of the thigh bones.

Step 146.
OK let's hide some bones so you can see the point assignments from several angles.

The front view...

The left view...

The Back view...

Step 147.
This image shows the constraints for each hip fan bone.

Obviously left side fan bones orient like the left thigh and right side fan bones orient like the right thigh.

Step 148.
Finally, Here's a movie to show the hip flexing in all directions. This joint works very well with a minimal amount of work.

Again Don't forget to apply smartskins to the thigh bones to clean up any creasing in the joints when they bend.

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Some Rigging Pointers...

In addition I added a setup for the eyes witch is basically two bones for the eyes and a null for them to aim at.

I haven't added other bones for facial animation yet, but I'm working on it.

A shot from the front to show the Setup Machine's rig.

Though I don't usually plug other commercial tools, I'll say that the Setup machine is well worth the money. The time it saved me on just 2 characters paid for the software.

Its easy to use and allowed me to set Cooper up with my modifications in about 6 hours. Without my mods it would have taken about 3 or 4 hours.

If you want to check out a model without any of my mods just download my Hulk model and see how it works. Without the fan bone work, the joints will crease severely.

Even with smartskin you'll have mesh popping on certain ranges of motion. But with the appropriate Fan Bones and Smartskin, your joints should look great!

This image is just to show the eye rig. You might also notice how well the bones of the spin line up with the splines of the torso. This was, incredibly, pure luck on my part.

Step 142.
Now, to the meat of this discussion, or should I say the bone. Sorry, couldn't resist.

In the image on the right, notice the two small bones at the shoulder. These, for those of you unacquainted with them, are fan bones. Basically they are bones that create a smoother bend in a joint. They are children of the clavicle bone.

Fan bones work by rotating themselves like other bones. They don't rotate exactly like their targets, they rotate a specified percentage of their target's rotation, this creates the "fan".

So what. Well if you study a joint, you'll notice that the skin around the joint never moves 100 percent with the joint's movement. The skin stretches and bulges as the joint flexes. Smartskin can simulate this but Smartskin has some drawbacks that are to technical to explain in a short tutorial.

Suffice it to say that you need smartskin and fanbones to get a realistic joint flex.

Step 143.
So How do these particular fan bones work. The image to the right shows the point assignments

This setup without smartskin would look pretty bad, but with just a little tweaking on the mesh in a smartskin on the arm bone, the joint will look very realistic with a minimal effort.

Step 144.
These are the constraints, and their enforcement's, that should be applied in a pose. The exact percentages may change depending on your setup and the location of the fan bones.

As a general rule the closer a fan bone is to its target, the more you'll enforce the constraint.

This movie shows the kind of joint you can get with just a little setup on the front end.

Play the movie and check it out. You might notice a pop on one frame. Its actually a lighting issue associated with a five point patch. It doesn't render with a texture applied. Lucky me.

Step 145.
This mess of spaghetti is my attempt at showing the setup for the hips and knees.

The main things to notice are the fan bones in the hips and the fan bones in the knees.

Basically the hip fan bones are children of the spine (spine1) and the knee fan bones are children of the thigh bones.

Step 146.
OK let's hide some bones so you can see the point assignments from several angles.

The front view...

The left view...

The Back view...

Step 147.
This image shows the constraints for each hip fan bone.

Obviously left side fan bones orient like the left thigh and right side fan bones orient like the right thigh.

Step 148.
Finally, Here's a movie to show the hip flexing in all directions. This joint works very well with a minimal amount of work.

Again Don't forget to apply smartskins to the thigh bones to clean up any creasing in the joints when they bend.

Back to tutorial index